PostNuke

Layout and User Interface Team

Now PostNuke is nearing the final release of 0.8, we're beginning to look beyond towards the future development, both of .8 and .9. In that future, we'd like PostNuke to look better, be easier to use and to really stand out among all the competing systems out there. And all that while remaining standards compliant and accessible! We need a team of skilled people to take PostNuke to the next level. We're looking for those skilled in HTML, CSS, Photoshop and image design, Ajax (specifically prototype and PostNuke's Ajax framework), PostNuke's theme engine and those with a knowledge of standards and Section 508. Does any one of that list sound like you? If so, please contact us as soon as possible for more information!

ValueAddon Development

We're still looking for willing developers to take over development of all the old ValueAddons in SVN (see the PostNuke-devel/modules directory for a full list). The more modules from this selection that are adopted by third party developers the better - the core team can concentrate on faster and better releases of the core, moving us to .9 quicker. All the modules in SVN are .8 ready, they just need a little attention and new features adding. Please get in touch if you can adopt a ValueAddon.

Support

This is something every single PostNuke user can contribute to. We're always looking for help in the forums, answering questions and helping users both experienced and just getting started. The PostNuke community is a friendly place, so why not show that to those who join us by answering any questions they may have? Even better, if you could transfer whatever you write a detailed page in the PostNuke Wiki you'd benefit the whole community.

Marketing and Publicity

Following .8 we're planning a marketing campaign to show the world just how good PostNuke is. If you have contacts in the web development industry, are able to publicise PostNuke to clients, coworkers or write a series of articles for a magazine then you can contribute here! We're looking to form a team entirely focused on this goal, so please contact us if you can help out.


Of course, if there's nothing in the list above which appeals to you we can always find a use for a willing volunteer. If you have any free time at all, and would like to give something back, please contact us as soon as you can.

We started the new year with news about the pnForms framework, added to .8; pnForms is used in the upcoming PageMaster module, an equivalent of pagesetter adapted to .8 technologies. Following on from that, we had the release of Milestone 3 in February, which we used to clear up many bugs in the .8 codebase.

Next, we saw the first release of Scribite, development of a high quality WYSIWYG solution for PostNuke sponsored by the German PostNuke Foundation (read about the latest, 2.0 release here). We also had the appearence of several 0.8 only modules - MultiHook, pnUpper (now renamed to MediaAttach) and Publish. More and more modules taking advantage of .8 technologies were developed throughout the year, and there is an ever increasing selection of modules ready to run with .8 when we release the final version next year.

PageLock, for managing concurrent edits of a page was introduced to PostNuke .8 in March. The PostNuke Recovery Console made an appearence in May, as a .8 replacement for the Swiss Army Knife. At the end of May, CoType (which our Docs team is using to author the new PostNuke .8 documentation) was released to the public.

Unfortunately, in June we hit the well publicised problems with the NOC, which continued for a couple of months and hit the development of .8, delaying RC1 until July. However, RC1 met with a good response and many bugs were fixed.

In August, a new Steering Committee was elected, and Jorn's new Content module (which just hit the 1.0 release) was announced. The 4th Annual pnMeeting convened in Osnabrück during September and there were many interesting talks and discussions held by the 30 or so attendees.

In October we had our first bug fixing weekend, followed by further problems with the NOC, forcing November to be a quiet month. However, on December the 12th we released RC2, which we wish to test over the Christmas holiday in preparation for RC3 or a final release early in the New Year.

So what's to come? I'll leave that for articles to be published in the New Year, but at the very least you can expect the release of .8 final, the unveiling of our new name and the rebranding which goes with it, further development of .9, and some results from our documentation project.

Finally, all that remains is to wish everyone a happy and prosperous New Year. Thanks for your continued support!


Simon Birtwistle [HammerHead]
PostNuke Steering Committee

Bug Fixing for RC3 / Bug Fix Weekend #2

Many new bugs have been submitted since the release of RC2, but as always, to improve the quality of 0.8 final we are looking for more. Please submit any bugs you find to the NOC. Meanwhile, RC2 bugfixing is in full swing, and the number of bugs in the bug tracker is steadily reducing. In preparation for RC3 early in the new year, we've scheduled a new bug fix weekend for the first weekend of January (plans are still to be finalised). For this weekend a Skype chat will be set up. If you feel you could offer assistance over the weekend, either through testing or coding then we invite you to join us. More details to follow shortly.

International Communities Request

In preparation for the publication of the project's new name we're looking to get in contact with those running local community support sites. To ensure active local communities are able to get international domain names the project is accepting applications for those currently running established communities. If you are interested in applying for a local domain name, please use the contact form to contact the Steering Committee.

Teams and Call for Volunteers

A separate article will shortly be posted asking for volunteers for a number of new sub teams within the projects. We're looking for people with some time to donate to the project in one of a number of different roles in an exciting time for the project. If you could be one of those people, please watch this space.

Module Developer's List - A Reminder

A list is available for module developers to ask questions and share expertise. Currently being discussed is the future of pnCommerce. We invite all those with an interest in PostNuke development to subscribe to the list - to do so, please PM Steffen (comment #1).

New on 0.9, Language System Redevelopments

Part of the list of features for 0.9 is a new languages system. Bernd Plagge is focused on this new system and is about to start working on the PostNuke-devel branch in SVN. We'll post more news on this system in a future article, but if you're subscribed to the commits list then look out for his work as it rolls in.

Web Links Module Needs a New Home

Unfortunately, Klaus Petzka has given the Web Links module up for adoption as he lacks the necessary time to maintain the module. As this is an extremely widely used module and a new API compliant version will be needed for .8, we're looking for a new maintainer. The module is nearly complete and just lacks a couple of functions before it can be released. Simply finishing this module off would be a valuable contribution to the community. If you are interested, please use the contact form to get in touch with the Steering Committee.

1. As we all know the Core team released RC2 of Postnuke .8 - the Steering Committee's report we are just working on will deal with the details.

2. Jørn Wildt released a first version of his "Content" module:
"Finaly I have finished the first version of my new Content module. With this little goodie you get HTML editing, YouTube video, Google maps and more features out of the box. This module was inspired by Typo3 and the never-finished PostNuke module Publish!" -- elfisk.dk

Content is a module that you can use to create static pages. It supports several predefined layouts (1 column, 2colums + header aso) and you can also add your own templates. In the editor you then can drag and drop content items like texts, images, youTube videos or Google Maps around and place them anywhere you like within the layout.

3. Together with "Content 1.0.0" a new version of Jørn's Mediashare gallery is available. Yet it still needs an installed Topics module to run under .8.

4. pnForum 2.7(.1) is finally released. A test version served the German Postnuke community for months and now he fixed the last bugs and made a public release.

5. Sven Schomaker is about to release Scribite 2.0 - It includes openWYSIWYG v1.4.6c as new editor and new versions of Xinha (v0.94), TinyMCE (v2.1.2), FCKeditor (v2.4.3), a lot of new module plugins and languages.

6. Axel Guckelsberger finished his diploma thesis that discussed the use of model-driven software development (MDSD) for Postnuke and resulted in his "ModuleStudio". Although ModuleStudio is far from complete it is way ahead in terms of modern software development. And if it turns out right MDSD is one of the next big things after object orientation (OO).

7. User ftree started work on a new gallery (pnAlbum) some months back and now published an article about his work. In preparation of the gallery he programmed some basic functions which turned out to be suitable for everyone who wants to program a module. If you want to you can take a look at his work.

8. There's a new pnCommerce team in formation: Rüdiger Hahn, Jim Hatfield, Chris Candreva, Bernd Plagge and some others are long time pnCommerce users and all maintained their own fork of the module. Now they are trying to put all their code together and a new version out for public use.

9. Marco Kundert is still working on his .8 follow-up for Pagesetter called Pagemaster. His first release will be 100% compatible to the latest version of Pagesetter so that you can simply import all you Pagesetter content into Pagemaster. Pagesetter introduced many ideas into Postnuke that have now become part of the core: Postnuke .8 has Workflows system and the idea of Pagesetter's form framework (Guppy) can now be found as Forms API in .8 and the WYSIWYG-Editor is now in Scribite generally available - Pagemaster uses all these features and thus can be much leaner.

10. Robert Gasch is working on a commercial shop module. He allowed me to take a look at it and it looks really great. Robert made his living for the last few years by setting up shop solutions for customers and now uses this experience for his new module.

11. Mateo Tibaquirá released a first version of his port of the standalone Relay AJAX directory management application. Includes drag-n-drop files and folders, a dynamic loading file structure, thumbnail views, multiple users & accounts, batch uploads, shopping-cart/batch downloads.

I am sure I forgot some people and I know there's a lot more going on in Postnuke land. But I'd like to leave some news for further articles.

If you are working on a news-worthy Postnuke project please contact me via personal message.

The idea behind it is simple: with the help of graphical editors one creates a model describing a module so far that all necessary information is contained which is needed to generate it. Different validations call attention to incorrect or missing elements, so that always runnable modules are produced.

The module is completely separated from its technical realisation, the whole development cycle can happen on an abstract level. When new versions are released, pressing a button is sufficient to update a module.

This preview version only provides necessary means and should really be taken for a preview. There is much planned and there are also some messy bugs, but with some excercise one can do work of weeks in ten minutes already :-)

• Download
• Examples

You can find further information on the project homepage as well as in the application itself.

Have fun and a nice Christmas!

The release candidate is the current state of the SVN and contains compared to RC1 a lot of bug fixes, a rewritten and simplified categories module and an improved upgrade for users of Postnuke .764.

Downloads

There are 3 packages available:

The core pack contains only the bare system and no content modules. It's supposed to serve as the basis for a new site. So you only have to upload all the modules you personally need.

• .zip
• .tar.gz

The value addons contain all the content modules from .7x in their latest version fit for .8. So if you need Quotes or FAQ for your site, this is the place to find them.

• .zip
• .tar.gz

The upgrade pack contains everything you need to update an existing .764 site. It is the core pack and the value addons in one package. Please note: DO NOT UPGRADE YOUR LIVE SITE. This is still not a final release and is not supposed to be used in live enviroments. If you intend to upgrade your site with the final version you should test the upgrade with the RC2 and a local copy of your .764 site.

• .zip
• .tar.gz

Please test!. The more you test now with the RC2 and the more bugs you report, the less trouble you will have with the final version.

Checksums

MD5 Checksums

• 6cf82ee1883136c4c0bf69e13f1d91ba PostNuke-0.800-RC2-FULL.tar.gz
• dd7f4b50e4ddfdbd3d96b017287f1a7c PostNuke-0.800-RC2-FULL.zip
• 6ebf2a51234a6401b7c96c89781d7165 PostNuke-0.800-RC2-CORE.tar.gz
• 14e65ef97d88470e0080c8e9538c9147 PostNuke-0.800-RC2-CORE.zip
• 89a6d51fa3f10286b09c29ea312ff7c9 PostNuke-0.800-RC2-ValueAddons.tar.gz
• e06a81aec7e50292dfd63fd40a7c88b9 PostNuke-0.800-RC2-ValueAddons.zip

SHA1 Checksums

• dd75378f3fa87df7b4b827e74adc0e162c29e861 PostNuke-0.800-RC2-FULL.tar.gz
• 2de3a2132265b920ab5333f6d2ec692e1c3061e1 PostNuke-0.800-RC2-FULL.zip
• 90ee7897b7abf29a4a136029823cb8a337a4076f PostNuke-0.800-RC2-CORE.tar.gz
• 376ae9f296c2533965d95972ddf05937a9cae4b4 PostNuke-0.800-RC2-CORE.zip
• de878d7472ae9d2fc54bcf7322cbd5e8df015e32 PostNuke-0.800-RC2-ValueAddons.tar.gz
• 78ba886356e44da4798abf9577ab45b68756c741 PostNuke-0.800-RC2-ValueAddons.zip

Notice

The upgrade will only work for .764 sites. If your site is based on an older version this is the time to start your upgrade. If you have any questions about the update, visit the forums.

There will be no major changes from RC2 to the final release. The RC is bug fix only. If you intend to write modules, themes aso for Postnuke .8 you can start working with this RC.

From the modules I have tested I see that most of you really try to stay up to date with current ideas about good HTML. I haven't seen any layout tables for months. Many module devs even try to put semantics into their work.

No matter there are some things, I'd like to point out and discuss with you.

1. "Divitis" is the name of a HTML coding style that puts every possible Tag into div-Tags. I personally only use divs for the general positioning of my layout: header, content, left block, right blocks, footer. Anything else doesn't need divs around it. You can position every other tag in any way you can position and style divs.
2. Some of you use a separate class or ID for every single piece of content. This makes the code seems bloated and hard to maintain. Please use only as few classes as possible.
3. Some modules have a very great design but it doesn't really adjust to my own themes. Please don't define the style of h-tags, p, ul, ol aso. in terms of color, line-height or font-size and style. I think most webmasters already have a site wide definition for these tags and want all h2-tags look the same all over the site.
4. Use the CSS inheritence system for a slim style sheet: In .8 everything your module produces is put into a div: [code]
   [/code] So if you want to style you module use e.g.: [code]#pn-maincontent.pn-module-YOUMODULE * h2 {}[/code] to make every h2 look the same in your module.
5. Please don't use h1 - h1 is the site's name.

These are no official guidelines - only my personal opinion which I wanted to discuss, in order to develop a list of tips for module developers. Please discuss here.

1. Sure with a broken NOC/SVN and Mark West on holidays there was not much acitivty in the SVN but now that both Mark and SVN are back we are fixing the remaining bugs for the RC2.

2. A name for the rebranding has been chosen. The Postnuke Foundation is currently in the process of trademark- and domain registration. The legal stuff seems to take some time. It won't contain a P or a N - so if you plan any new modules you shouldn't call them pnThisAndThat.

3. Speaking of module development:

a) Axel Guckelsberger of the Steering Committee just presented his diploma thesis: Modulestudio will not only revolutionize the way of programming Postnuke modules. It is way ahead of other similar systems. There will be a free version available but this will be a limited version.

Modulestudio, Google Video

b) Jørn Wildt started the work on the content module we discussed some months ago here and at the pnMeeting. This module is simply called "Content" and it uses all the new stuff in .8. The principle behind "Content" is that you first choose the layout of the article you want to write (1 column, 2 colums, whatever you like) and then you place blocks of content inside this layout with a smooth javascript interface. These blocks can contain text, images, videos, Google Maps aso. More blocks can be included as plugins.
http://noc.postnuke.com/projects/content/

c) As Jørn Wildt ceased work on Pagesetter ("I does all I need and it runs with .8") German programmer "Kundi" has picked up this work. He completely rewrites Pagesetter in order to remove Jørn's Guppy form framework and to include .8's Form framework, workflows aso. His first release will do everything that Pagesetter 6.3 does and it will be able to import from Pagesetter. Kundi is currently looking for a nice new module name. Any suggestions?

d) Robert Gasch works on a shopping module which won't be GPL - I was able to take a preview and it looks very adult and I think it will be worth it's money.

e) The last time I looked at pnUpper it was kind of a niche module that I never really had any use for. Axel Guckelsberger is currently turning it into a full fletched media library for the central storage of any kind of media to be used in other modules. Thus he renamed it to MediaAttach.

MediaAttach

4. Now that the NOC seems to be kind of stable again we hope to have time to replace it with a less complicated software. We are evaluating Trac for example and we found someone who has some experience with the migration of GForge to Trac. Do you know any other software that could replace the basic functions of the NOC? Bugtracker, release management, news, SVN?

The obvious tasks at hand (once the legal issues are in place) will be to explain people outside the active community what is happening, why and what consequences the rebranding will have.
Thats not just a task for PostNuke.com (sorry I don't know the new name ;)
The whole community, from main community site to the most "insignificant" PostNuke support site has to take part in this massive campaign to promote the new name and to explain.
Thats a big coordination task but thats not all... the PostNuke users you don't necessarily reach with this work is our customers!
Those of us that has made PostNuke not just a way of life but also a way of living has to explain to paying customers why the CMS they have been told was the worlds best and most steady product suddenly has to be renamed.
You could shrug off this and assert that "you have earned the money... you do the work and keep on smiling"... thats partly right... personaly I have never been payed for the system or any public available modules or such only the time I invested in the projects.
Last but not least we have to reach the people that are not aware of "renamedpostnuke".
Today you have to be creative when searching for a CMS on google and NOT hitting a PostNuke site within the first 2 resulting pages.

What the above lines boil down to is... have you got a plan for this?

I certainly understand why there is so much secrecy about the new name because it's a worldwide rebranding but again I ask you to consider the fact that there are a lot of community- and support sites out there that might feel slighted or disregarded.
We (the local community sites) have put a considerable amount of work and effort into promoting and supporting PostNuke and would ofcourse want to be able to do the same for "renamedpostnuke".

If we are not able to aquire "renamedpostnuke"-dot-"countrycode" for the major community sites in the various countries then please give us the opportunity to claim a variety of the name (maybe in advance) or "certify" us or whatever.
Maybe you schould have a little more faith in us and see us as "partners" in stead of "competitors"... well maybe I'm out of line here but that's how I sometimes feel ;)

You could claim that you have considered this and will make subdomain's for the various contries but that might not be the best way to do things. Although I would like to see a closer relationship between the main community site and the local community sites we still have to be just that... "local".

As stated above this is not criticism just some personal thoughts I have had for some time now and thought schould get out in the open.
If you will take them into consideration or not is up to you... maybe they already have been and I just didn't grasp it ;)

Anyhow I think there has been too little "public" info regarding the rebranding and your thoughts and considerations.
Right now I even don't care about the new name (...who am I kidding...OFCOURSE I DO...can hardly wait ;) and maybe I'm the only person who questions the steps involved...?

With the best of intentions the deepest respect for your work and 100% loyal PostNuke community- supporter and admin
Kim Enemark
Administrator at PostNuke.dk

PS: Try to google "postnuke" ;)
Danish search (top of page 1)
English search (top of page 3)